Castles and Nocchino

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Geo: 46.1445, 8.72654

We had a very quiet day on Monday – around home (our Ronco home really does feel like home!) and seeing Zia Natalina and Zio Luciano (the only aunt and uncle in Ronco at the moment) for lunch. After a rest, we went to the Bellinzona castles – we had visited one of the three castles last month, and Matthew in particular was keen to see more castles before we left Switzerland. The second and third castles, which we visited on Monday were great, particularly the second one, which had a small archaeology museum and a short film (in English) explaining the history of civilization in this area for the last 3000 years. And the views from one castle to another are wonderful! However, there is a really bad heat haze – Elio says it is pollution from Milan – and all the views are significantly decreased. We can't even really see the lake from our balcony!

We were talking of having dinner at a grotto with Rita, Elio and Zio and Zia, but the older generation had been busy making nocchino all afternoon, and so we stayed at Zia's for soup and pizza.

What is nocchino? Well, you pick green walnuts, where the shell has not yet hardened, chop them up and put them into large bottles of grappa (Italian spirit, made from the grape skins remaining from winemaking). This must be done before the Feast of Peter and Paul (29 June). The bottles then sit in the sun, fermenting, for somewhere between 28 and 40 days – everyone has their own, strongly felt opinion on this matter. Then, the rotting black stuff is strained and bottled – this is nocchino. It tastes as good as it sounds – this stuff makes grappa look like a refined drink. We have a bottle at home, if you want to try it one night…

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